Three Floyds – The Barley Whine

Three Floyds YumYum

October 29, 2014 by Steve Leave a Comment

Out with the old, in with the new. With Three Floyds YumYum replacing a staple in their lineup, we first should try to understand the shakeup. Sometimes change is for the better, like when The Facts of Life added Jo in season 2. Without her butch pugnacity, the show likely would of been dropped for having all the narrative tension of the Puppy Bowl. So to does the craft beer world often need fresh blood to keep beer lovers penchant for the novel liquid satisfied.

With the constant growth and innovation of the American craft beer market, what was novel 6 years ago, may now be passe. You would be hard pressed to find many microbreweries producing a brown ale, where just a few years back it was a staple of the US beer scene. With no great tradition like European and UK drinkers have to ground and delimit brew masters creations, the US craft beer market is in an age of innovation. Customers want more punch, like Nancy McKeon brought to Mrs. Garrett’s house.

2014 has seen its share of change, even from established brewing powerhouses. Sierra Nevada released five large format bottles featuring whole cone hops including Harvest Wild Hop and two antipodal wet hop Harvest beers. Hop forward brewer Green Flash chose to modify their recipe for West Coast IPA, to include more hops. Even the most popular craft brewers such as Three Floyds find room for improvement. Pride and Joy, their ‘American Mild’ at 5% ABV has seen this year as its last. The English inspired ale was nearly as bland as it sounded, when contrasted by their many, many, other heavy hopped offerings. in P&J’s place comes Three Floyds Yumyum. Will this new brew be a fun new contribution to the FFF lineup the way Jo was to 80’s sitcoms, or a miscasting à la Ryan Renyolds casting as The Green Lantern.

THE BEER

Three Floyds calls this an ‘American Session IPA’ despite being 5.5% ABV. Not sure it needs that confusing labeling, as most people consider session beers to be under 4.5% or thereabouts, as we have discussed in the past. Thankfully, the trippy label also tells us YumYum ‘has just the malt backbone to support an explosive juicy hop profile derived from a new blend of proprietary hops’. Now we are dealing aces.

TASTING NOTES

Three Floyds YumYum gushes mountains of Johnson & Johnson Baby Bath bubbles that loiter, bright and white. Underneath the clouds turns a translucent copper brew. Aromatics abound, with spicy grains and pine hops most prevalent. The marketing description promised a concrete malt base, and YumYum delivers with serious sweets upfront, leading to a clean mid palette, hinting at mango and pineapple. The big time carbonation pushes through the body, with orange and lemon joining the party, along with a hint of hop oil/resin, and bitterness. The finish is between dry and sweet, with the massive hop profile producing a lingering, but not unappealing bitter note.

CONCLUSION

FFF’s Pride and Joy was an American take on British mild ale, and as such was perhaps the best hop-forward rendition attempted state side. That said, it was not a cask conditioned real ale, representing the essence of a local pub. It was a the least interesting 6-pack in an award winning, and production limited, lineup. Three Floyds YumYum steps into the same space as their already stellar Alpha King and Zombie Dust. There is a real danger of overlap, offering a new hoppy pale ale.

Thankfully YumYum is not only a delicious American Pale Ale, with the proprietary hop blend there is less citrus than Zombie,less resinous than Alpha King. This beer is a distinctive, delicious addition to the FFF lineup. If you adore the other Three Floyd’s hoppy brews, you’ll right swipe this one quickly.

8.5/10

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Three Floyds Zombie Dust

January 2, 2013 by Steve Leave a Comment

THREE FLOYDS ZOMBIE DUST

In this review we once again examine a beer from the legendary Three Floyds.

WHY THREE FLOYDS?

Founded in 1996 by Nick Floyd in Munster, Indiana, Three Floyds is the brewery we at The Barley Whine have reviewed more than any other. Rated the top brewery in the world by RateBeer.com five of the last six years, and the recipient of top scores from Beer Advocate and us. Nick and the crew hit the scene with full flavored beers at a time when craft beer was still fetishizing British brown ales and Germanic lagers. Plus he has a strong interest in metal, fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons, and brings the imagery from these places to the branding and marketing of the Three Floyds products. Names like Dark Lord, Alpha King, and of course Zombie Dust form a dark mythos, granting personality to a product line of impressive, even intimidating beers. For all these reasons, most especially for all the super tasty brews, these guys receive a lot of our attention.

THE BEER

From Three Floyds commercial description:

This intensely hopped and gushing undead pale ale will be ones only respite after the zombie apocalypse. Created with our marvelous friends in the comic industry. Art by Tim Seeley

What more can you say? Hopefully something, or the review serves little purpose.

Three Floyds Zombie Dust American Pale Ale — Three Floyds Zombie Dust

TASTING NOTES

Citrus and tropical fruits explode off of the nose as this polluted sunset orange brew pours out. The head forms dense bubbles with good retention and sticky lacing, I’m guessing from the malt. Grapefruit flavor from the hops hits first on the palette, mouth watering and refreshing all at once, and is the dominant note. Weaved in to the citrus blast is a bit of malty bread, and a the gentlest kiss of bitterness to close out. Solid carbonation floats the deliciousness down effortlessly.

CONCLUSION

For anyone who has ever enjoyed a beer with hops, this is a must have. In the upper echelons of Pliny the Younger and Pliny the Elder, Hopslam, and the scrumptious delights coming out of Kern River and Hill Farmstead, Three Floyds Zombie Dust delivers a hugely citrus hopped pale ale with minimal bitterness, and maximum flavor.

10/10

Three Floyds Moloko Milk Stout

October 19, 2012 by Steve 1 Comment

THREE FLOYDS MOLOKO MILK STOUT REVIEW

WHAT IS A MILK STOUT?

Milk stout, or “sweet stout”, is a variant of stout with a sweeter finish and thicker, creamy mouth-feel, generally from unfermentable milk sugar. Left Hand Milk Stout may be the best known American variant. One of the first milk stouts I recall tasting was from Willoughby Brewing Company at a beer tasting held at the Holden Arboretum. Their version of the beer (which I believe is no longer brewed), with the roasted malty complexity of a stout and a pleasant thickness, was clearly the best beer at that event. Milk stout is a style with wide appeal when made well. With its colorful and abstract label staring at me from the beer fridge for over a week, I am really looking forward to trying Three Floyds Moloko Milk Stout!

Three Floyds Moloko Milk Stout — Mokolo Milk Stout

TASTING NOTES

Packaging description: This Milk Stout is brewed with a portion of golden naked oats and lactose milk sugar to give it a rounded and full-bodied mouth feel.

Out of the bottle this gal pours deep space black, forming a strong, foamy tan head with lacing. It takes a deep sniff to get much fragrance. Roasted malts and a hint of sweetness come waft up subtly. The taste takes a big right turn towards huge. Three Floyds Moloko Milk Stout brings major roasted malts, a little kick of hops, and a nice sweet finish. Really loving the addition of oats and lactose as the thick body adds to the pleasantness of the drinking experience.

CONCLUSION

Summer is not typically stout season, but Moloko will make you more than willing to make an exception for this treat.

9.0/10

Three Floyds Calumet Queen

September 12, 2012 by Steve 1 Comment

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n the 1990s German style beers were everywhere in the Midwest. While this has not entirely faded, with craft brewers cranking out a number of them at high quality, at many American brewpubs it is more common to find a Belgian wit than a hefeweizen, and you’re more likely to encounter brown ale than altbier. Still, brewers continue to make pils, rauchbier, marzen and Kölsch in large numbers. Three Floyds Calumet Queen is a Kölsch style beer, brewed in late summer and we were lucky enough to get to try a bottle.

Three Floyds Calumet Queen kölsch — Three Floyds Calumet Queen

TASTING NOTES

When poured, Calumet Queen displays the bright golden hue of early autumn leaves. Head is bright white, significant, but weak with little lacing, leaving almost as quickly as it arrived. The nose is sweet with floral notes, likely from the German hops, and some vestigial qualities. The taste is sweeter than the nose, with the lager yeast adding a mild spice, and bright German hops bringing up a bit of bite at the close. For a fresh Kölsch, one brewed by a hop forward brewer at the top of their game, the bitterness disappointing slightly. Were it not so darn sweet this would be a near perfect German style guzzler. Body is light, which befits a Kölsch.

CONCLUSION

It is always a treat to get the German styles brewed close to home and fresh, as my general criticism of them could stem from hops fading on the journey from Germany to my palette. Strangely, Three Floyds Calumet Queen has the same fault I find in many of the authentic Kölsch brews: namely that they are lacking in the hop department. Calumet City, Illinois abuts Indiana to the west, much as the Calumet Queen brushes right up against what a great German lager-like beer should be. While the overall quality of this beer is top notch, lacking a balance to the saccharine malt base, it could have been even better.

Three Floyds Apocalypse Cow

July 4, 2012 by Steve 1 Comment

Hoppy 4th of July! For this special holiday review we take sample Three Floyds Apocalypse Cow. A double IPA , Apololypse Cow is one of many hoppy brews from from Munster Indiana’s Three Floyds Brewing Company. Hop forward beers like Gumballhead, Alpha King, Zombie Dust, and another DIPA, Dreadnaught (9.3%ABV / 99 IBUs). All delicious examples of some of the best hopped beers in the world. Three Floyds has won Best Brewery in the World from RateBeer.com 5 of the past 6 years for good reason. These beers are consistently superlative.

So how about another double IPA in the lineup? Can it compare to the Dreadnaught or other world-class double IPAs? To start, it differs from its sister beer the Dreadnaught primarily by the addition of lactose milk sugar. This gives a creamier body in the same way a milk stout is smoothed over. But what will that do to an IPA? Enough prologue, let’s taste this bovine!

TASTING NOTES

A big citrus nose flows out of the frothy headed, amber colored ale. Amazing grapefruit and tangerine assault the palate immediately, followed by bread-y sweet malts covering up most of the 11% ABV. Going down the hatch with brisk carbonation you get a cheek pinch of bitter hops, lemon and some faint ethanol burn. This is a flavor explosion of citrus and floral hops, sweetness, booze, wrapped around the slick body! Drinkability is far too high for such a boozy brew. Compared to 3 Floyds’ other DIPA, the Cow has more body and sweetness, complexity and finishes at least as bitter.

CONCLUSION

The Apocalypse Cow is a seasonal release for June. It just appeared at my local bodega and I’m guessing it won’t last. If you like Bell’s Hopslam, Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA, Great Lakes Lake Erie Monster, or any big IPA, give this a try. You may have a new favorite hop bomb.

9.5/10